Female-biased spontaneous dispersal in Drosophila melanogaster: The influence of nutrition and density on their movement

Dispersal is often essential for attaining Darwinian fitness, especially for species living in spatially structured, heterogeneous habitats. Theoretically, sex-specific resource requirements can drive the two sexes to disperse differently, resulting in sex-biased dispersal (SBD). Understanding ecological factors affecting SBD is important. Using an experimental two-patch dispersal setup we measured spontaneous dispersal in laboratory-adapted populations of Drosophila melanogaster under a set of common, interlinked ecological scenarios relating to – (a) dietary ecology and (b) adult density. We found the deteriorating overall nutritional quality of food affects the strength of SBD, and female dispersal is particularly sensitive to the availability of protein. Adult density had sex sex-specific effect on dispersal. Female dispersal was found to be density-independent but males showed increased dispersal at higher density. Females tend to disperse more from male-biased patches likely to av..., Experiments were conducted using laboratory populations of Drosophila melanogaster. All experiments were based on manual observations, without any video recording. The experimental details can be found in the published manuscript. , , # Data from: Female-biased spontaneous dispersal in Drosophila melanogaster: The influence of nutrition and density on their movement

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.95x69p8wt](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.95x69p8wt)

## Description of the data and file structure

The experiments were carried out following a randomized block design. *Drosophila melanogaster* laboratory populations were used to conduct these experiments. Within a block, each treatment was replicated. Replicate setups, where dispersal was recorded were two-patch dispersal setups as described in the manuscript. Proportion dispersed within a fixed window of time was recorded for both sexes. 

### Files and variables

#### File: Data\_file\_for\_review\_and\_archive.xlsx

**Description:** A combined data file having data from all experiments, separated in different tabs. 

##### Variables

* Treatment 
* Vial id
* block 
* Dispersal
* Proportion 
* BW
* Sex
* Survivorship 
* DT
* PropD

**Key to reading the data file:**

Da...